Wellness

Do you get laser focused on the things you need to do, and then get that wired/tired feeling?

Are you so intent on what you’re doing, you have trouble seeing the forest for the trees?

Is it hard to get to sleep?

When you are focused – paying attention, thinking, planning, even worrying – your brain is processing in a brainwave state known as Beta. The electrical activity of Beta ranges from 12 to 38 HZ, or cycles per second, which is pretty fast.

Now focusing is a really great thing, especially in our ADHD world. The trouble comes when we get stuck in that gear. We can’t or won’t stop thinking. Too much of a good thing is too much. When our brains are processing fast, it takes a lot of energy. When something revs up for a long time, it’s likely to burn out.

Your brain needs to slow down, take mini-breaks.

Alpha Is the next level of processing, or awareness. Slowing down the brain’s electrical activity to between 8 and 12 HZ, opens your awareness and takes it inside. It’s like widening a lens that has been focused on an ant, walking up a tree. You open up to take in the whole tree, and then become aware of the forest.

Notice the crossover around 12 HZ – at the high end of Alpha and the low end of Beta. There’s the sweet-spot, where we get into a relaxed, focused state. Imagine being able to see the big picture in a usually stressful planning meeting.

Next, we move down into Theta, 3 to 8 HZ, which is a story all its own and best saved for another time. Hint: think learning, creativity and psychological health.

Delta is the deep, sleep-through-a-thunder-storm kind of sleep. Its slow brainwave activity of .5 to 3 HZ is the state where the body heals and repairs itself. Large quantities of DHEA, the growth hormone, are released; it’s natural anti-aging.

So, what does your brain need you to do?

Let it slow down:

Take a mini-break every 90 minutes, where you get up and walk around, look out a window.

Close your eyes and gently hum on one long tone.

Turn off the music, TV, computer, phone for at least ½ hour. How long can you live in the silence? An hour? How about 2?

Learn to meditate

If you have trouble meditating, or find yourself unable to slow things down, try ourVibroacoustic Sound Chair with Brainwave Entrainment. Our system uses specialized audio recordings with a uniquely-designed sound/light system and vibro-acoustic chair to help change your brainwaves. These changes allow you to reach deeper states of relaxation and awareness.

Increase your brain’s efficiency, manage stress, sleep better, remember what it feels like to be deeply relaxed – these are all within reach. Call Meg at 610-504-4830 to see how we can help.

If you are seeing a neurologist for peripheral neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, stroke-related damage, migraine headaches, epilepsy, or a movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease, you should know that good nutrition and certain nutritional supplements are proven to help these problems.

They can:

reduce pain

slow the progression of nerve damage

help you reduce your drug dosage

remove toxins from your body that may be contributing

to your health problems

I have helped a number of people with neurological problems, working with them and their doctors to safely combine their medical care with natural, nutrition-based treatments.

If you have peripheral neuropathy, for instance, consider taking alpha lipoic acid, a nutritional supplement that can work as well as the drug Neurontin–without the side effects. Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin B12, folate and Coenzyme Q10, which can help relieve some forms of neuropathy. And if you’re taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, you need to be aware that these drugs greatly increase your risk for developing neuropathy, and can also cause muscle weakness and mood changes. Getting your cholesterol down with a healthy, plant-based diet can help you lower your dosage of statin drugs and reduce your risk for developing these troubling symptoms.

People with MS often do better when they start on an anti-inflammatory diet, getting more omega-3 fats and fewer omega-6 and saturated fats. They also benefit from other nutrients: vitamins D, E and B12, n-acetyl-cysteine, phosphatidylserine, CoQ10 and alpha lipoic acid.

People with Parkinson’s disease often have had exposure to toxic chemicals, such as solvents, herbicides or pesticides, and may benefit from an evaluation to reduce ongoing environmental toxin exposure. They also often improve by following a detoxifying diet and supplements to help their bodies break down and remove brain and nerve-damaging toxins.

People who’ve had a stroke, who have high blood pressure, or who are at risk for having stroke because of clotting problems can reduce their blood pressure with a diet high in potassium, magnesium, calcium, vitamin D, getting more omega-3 fats, and cutting back on sodium and saturated fats. This kind of diet can also help restore normal heartbeat in some people who have heart arrhythmia problems.

People with migraines and epilepsy sometimes find that they are reacting to certain foods or food additives. A little detective work can help pinpoint these foods, but sometimes people need to get food allergy testing to figure out what is going on. I’ve found people often improve once they stop eating foods, or, especially, food additives like sulfites and MSG–and aspartame−that are making them sick.

Parkinson’s Patients & Care Givers are welcome to enjoy a relaxing day in a peaceful surrounding where they will discover simple, natural ways to improve their balance, reduce tremors, ease muscle tension, increase liver and brain function and much more!

Massage, the ultimate mind body medicine isn’t just for the wealthy any more. . . and it isn’t a rare occasion when someone enjoys a massage. Now-a-days, many people are taking regular trips for a massage to a spa, chiropractic office, alternative health centers, and even a hospital. Is this a sign that people are becoming proactive with their health? Let’s hope so!

People of all ages are scheduling a massage on a regular basis because they have learned that it isn’t just a mental sensation that makes them feel better, but a very deep healing process. Something many of us don’t realize is that a massage also involves giving us a sense of being cared for, comfort, empowerment, and adds to the healingprocess by creating a deep connection with another human being, themassage therapist. These are all so important for our over-all health.

We have all heard that newborns need touching or they will die. It seems that we humans never stop needing to be touched and a massage is the “ultimate touch.”

Physical contact is more precious than ever in our world where so much of our interaction is virtual (Facebook, e-mails, and texts).

Most people don’t realize that our skin is our body’s largest organ, and when its sensory receptors are stimulated, the hormone oxytocin, the one that makes you feel good, is released. At the same time, cortisol, the stress hormone, is reduced.

We just don’t realize how stressed we are until we have relaxed enough to feel the difference. That gives us a clue as to how deeply a massage can affect us. Since the skin is the largest “organ” in the body, it is amazing what benefits we experience when it is massaged or even when we are touched.

Massage is generally considered part of complementary and alternative medicine and is increasingly being offered along with standard treatment for a wide range of medical conditions and situations. Check the website, TwinPondsCenter.com, one of the largest complementary and alternative health centers in the country, to learn the many types of massages available.

It is the touch of massage that has become the ultimate mind-body medicine. If you’re into “preventative medicine,” this is a great avenue to take; however, once the body has gotten off balance, some studies have found massage to be helpful for:

Digestive disorders

Anxiety

Fibromyalgia

Headaches

Insomnia related to stress

Myofascial pain syndrome

Paresthesias and nerve pain

Soft tissue strains or injuries

Sports injuries

Temporomandibular joint pain

Happiness

Lowered blood pressure & heart rate

Boosted immune function

Relief from pain

Stress release (cortisol hormone level drops)

Release of muscle tightness

Because there are many different types of massage for specific conditions or diseases, it is recommended that you talk with a few experienced practitioners to be confident the one you choose is the right one for you.

Despite the fact that massage is called the Ultimate Mind Body Medicine, massage isn’t meant as a replacement for regular medical care. Let your doctor know you’re trying massage and be sure to follow any standard treatment plans you have.

For more information and help in finding the right practitioner for you, please call 610-395-3355.

We are asked constantly “How can I live a healthy lifestyle?”

It’s about choosing new, healthy habits in your daily routine. I know, easier said than done. Don’t be hard on yourself. Start with taking small steps to change patterns. Most importantly, if you fall off track, which we all do once in awhile, just get back into it.

With the daily stresses most of us find ourselves dealing with, fast foods on every corner, the constantly pushing of fattening and tempting comfort foods, it’s no wonder we’re gaining so much weight and having health issues.

“How can I mentally and physically get on the right track?”

Understand how you can benefit from a healthy lifestyle.

Breaking bad habits can lead you to a better quality of life.

Making healthy changes will reduce the risks of many health problems like heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Get up and move!

Reasons why people find it hard to live a healthy lifestyle:

Stress: How many times have you heard “stress eater”? Well it exists. Most people gain weight and don’t exercise due to the stresses in their life. Some great stress reducers: Yoga and Meditation

Too Busy: Rushing around, never the time? That quick meal at a chain seems an easier solution. You’ll have to find the time to do this! You will need to create a plan and do your best to stick with it. Use a calendar or journal to help you. Go to the grocery store once a week with a well planned out list.

Difficulty already with movement: Most individuals that are already overweight don’t think they are able to exercise enough to make a difference, so they just give up. Start slow.Starting off with a nice walk in the morning or early evening is a great way to start the body moving.

The “I can’t do it” mentality: There will be ups and downs, but don’t give up. You have what it takes and just because you attempted a diet or exercise program in the past determines your success this time around.Read a daily quote or find your inspiration from a friend or someone you know who has been there. Ask them questions on how they did it! Also, the practitioners at Twin Ponds Integrative Health Center are available to support, motivate, and guide you.

What to expect during a Carotid Ultrasound and the beneifts of the test.

Carotid ultrasound is a painless and safe procedure that tests the structure and functioning of the carotid arteries in your neck and cardiovascular system.

Every person has two carotid arteries that are located on each side of the neck and they help to deliver blood from the heart to the brain. During a carotid ultrasound, sound waves are used to test if these arteries are blocked or narrowed since that can determine your risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack. Results from a carotid ultrasound essentially, help you decide your course of treatment action to reduce your risk of stroke or heart attack.

If you fear an increased risk of stroke or heart attack, you must undergo a carotid ultrasound to test for narrowed or blocked carotid arteries. Carotid arteries may be narrowed or blocked by plaque, calcium, fat or cholesterol buildup if these substances exist in excess in your bloodstream. It is highly recommended that you have a carotid ultrasound if you have certain conditions that heighten the risk of stroke or heart attack. These conditions include:

Carotid ultrasound, also known as Doppler ultrasound, can be combined with other tests to check for blocked or narrowed blood vessels in other parts of the body.

What to expect from a Carotid Ultrasound

When you go for your carotid ultrasound, a sonographer will use a transducer (a small, hand-held device) that produces sound waves and records the echo when the waves bounce off blood cells, organs and tissues. Thereafter, these echoed sound waves will be translated into a live action image or a graph by a computer. The procedure is painless and safe and takes about thirty minutes to complete.

Before the procedure begins, the sonographer will apply a warm gel on your skin that will eliminate the formation of air pockets between the transducer and your skin. Finally, the sonographer will press his transducer on the side of your neck to emit sound waves and record the echo.

The results of Carotid Ultrasound

After you undergo the carotid ultrasound, a radiologist will examine and interpret the results if there is a risk. The test will surely explain everything you need to know, including the different ways in which your condition can affect your health. If the test shows that you are at high risk of a stroke, recommendations such as the following will be made:

· Eat a healthy diet that has a balanced quantity of whole grain breads, cereals, fruits and vegetables

We depend on our national military to protect our country from foreign invaders, but do you realize that YOU NEED TO PROTECT YOUR BODY from its foreign invaders?

Your personal military is your immune system. How successful is it? Is it supported and well trained by you? Are you confident that you are well protected?

Your immune system is a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to defend your body against attacks by “foreign” invaders. These are tiny organisms such as bacteria, parasites, and fungi that can cause infections. Your body provides an ideal environment for many of these invaders and it is the immune system’s job to keep them out or, failing that, to seek out and destroy them.

When the immune system hits the wrong target, however, it can unleash a torrent of disorders, including allergic diseases, arthritis, and a form of diabetes. If the immune system is crippled, other kinds of diseases result and an immune system boost is necessary.

The immune system is amazingly complex. It can recognize and remember millions of different enemies, and it can produce secretions (release of fluids) and cells to match up with and wipe out nearly all of them.

The secret to its success is an elaborate and dynamic communications network. Millions and millions of cells, organized into sets and subsets, gather like clouds of bees swarming around a hive and pass information back and forth in response to an infection. Once immune cells receive the alarm, they become activated and begin to produce powerful chemicals. These substances allow the cells to regulate their own growth and behavior, enlist other immune cells, and direct the new recruits to trouble spots.

Sound like a war zone? Don’t wait until war breaks out. Get an immune system boost with a healthy lifestyle of eating well, exercising, and managing stress, and your immune system will support you physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Osteoporosis is a common condition in postmenopausal women that can reduce mobility, quality of life, and lead to other serious health problems. In fact, you may have osteoporosis and not even know it!

A broken wrist may be the first sign of osteoporosis. See your doctor and find out if an underlying problem could be making your bones brittle.

Osteoporosis is a childhood disease, even though we may not see the effects until we are older. Encourage young people to build strong bones by choosing calcium-rich food and getting lots of exercise−two key elements to building healthy bones.

Losing two or more inches in your height—something often chalked up to normal aging—could be a sign of spinal fractures, a marker for serious bone loss. Healthy bones are slightly flexible and are meant to withstand most impact. Freak accidents aside, bones aren’t supposed to break.

Diabetes, breast cancer, gluten intolerance, Crohn’s disease, hyperthyroidism, and depression have all been linked to bone loss. If you have any of these conditions, you may be at higher risk for fractures.

Preventing hip fractures should be as important as warding off cancer. One in five women and one in three men will die within a year after suffering a hip fracture. Because they commonly occur after age 75, hip fractures are often the catalyst for severe health declines. But rarely are they taken as seriously as cancer or heart disease

If you don’t fall you won’t break your bones. Improve your stability and reduce your risk of falling with core work and resistance training.

What a drag it was to get up in the morning to go to work. When the alarm went off, I just wanted to throw it out the window. I felt like my eyes didn’t want to open and my body felt like a load of bricks.I finally had enough of this tossing and turning every night and decided to search for some way to get my nerves under control to enjoy a restful night of sleep. With a stressful and demanding job, I couldn’t afford to work in a fog all day long.

Then I saw an ad in a magazine about a state-of-the-art vibroacoustic chair at a health center that helps people with sleeping problems, among other things. I wanted to learn about this chair and experience it so I made an appointment with the counselor who is certified in this type of therapy.

I was fascinated that the process of hearing “sound vibration” through the body’s nerves, skin, and bones heals so many physical and mental problems.

Wow!Just sitting on the o-gravity chair was incredibly comfortable.I felt like I was floating as my muscles got more and more relaxed. The chair acted like electronic tuning forks that vibrated my whole body.I was hearing multi-layered sounds from the ear phones and wearing glasses that transformed what I was hearing into mandala-like patterns of light while feeling the chair vibrate. The whole experience took my brain and central nervous system into a deeply relaxed-healing state – my brain was in balanced harmony!

Now that I had a session with the counselor and knew how to work the chair, I can visit the chair at my convenience and go home relaxed and ready for a good night’s sleep. This vibroacoustic chair has done wonders for my health–and it’s easy on my pocketbook.

One day a woman with a chronic physical problem had a vision. It was of having an alternative health center to go to for pain relief and to gain the knowledge she knew she needed for lifestyle changes. She was ready to not only work on relieving her chronic pain but to get to the root cause of all of her concerns.

She knew she needed a place where she could work on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. She also knew that there needed to be collaborating experts in these fields to give her the support, motivation, andthe self-awareness / education that she so longed for.

“When the time is right, the teacher appears” is a saying in the spiritual world. She was ready to work at a deep level. Her desire was realized when she found Twin Ponds Integrative Health Center. Now, she had collaborating experts in the different fields to help her with the psychological root cause, help her to be more relaxed, teach her how to eat healthy, and most of all teach her how to move in an effortless way to relieve her physical pain.

How exciting to have expert practitioners in their fields give her the support, motivation, self-awareness, and all the education she needed to empower her ”self” so that she can be pain free and successful in all areas of her life.

A lousy day on the golf course made Pete realize how much pressure he was under at work and at home, but it took a lousy day on the golf course for him to finally realize that he better take a good look at his life and make some changes. He was stuck and had no idea what to do. He knew his weight was up, his cholesterol, and blood pressure were too high, he wasn’t getting enough sleep, and his wife wasn’t happy with him.

He had no clue what to do or where to start. He didn’t want to take medications. He was afraid! He had no idea what his possibilities were!

One day when he was at the supermarket, he saw a magazine about complementary and alternative health services. He had no idea what it was all about, but he was desperate enough to pick it up and read through it. Most of the services he had never heard of – funny names like Feldenkrais, Tai Chi, and Ayurvedic.

The more Pete read, the more interested he became. Most of the magazine had to do with the benefits these services provided. It was hard for him to get his brain around this way of thinking, but he was desperate and kept investigating these new concepts that restored health in a natural way.

One ad caught Pete’s attention. It had to do with Wellness Coaching. He called the number listed and got answers to all his questions. There were so many possibilities! He now felt hope for a healthy future!

The Coaching helped him realize that he needed to learn to be aware of what he ate, how he ate it, and to be responsible for his health on many different levels. He called his wife all excited because he signed them up for a “food preparation” class. That was a start – something for them to do together to improve both their health.

Pete continued with his “wellness journey.” With the Wellness Coach and other practitioners, he addressed his diet and eating habits, sleep issues, and stress and anxiety. Today Pete is at a healthy weight, his blood pressure is normal, and he is able to manage his stress. These were his possibilities and he took advantage of them! Life is good and so is his golf game – now!